Typical reciprocating food slicers have a rotatable, circular or disc-like slicing blade, an adjustable gauge plate for determining the thickness of the slice and a carriage which is mounted on a slide rod within the slicer base or housing for supporting the food as it is moved back and forth past the cutting edge of the knife during slicing. A lift mechanism (lifting lever and roller) is provided to assist a user in lifting the front feet of the slicer to enable the user to clean the area underneath the slicer. Although the lift mechanism reduces the lifting force, the energy input or total effort required to lift the slicer is not reduced. This is due to the length of the lift lever and the distance required to rotate the lever to lift the slicer. In addition, the lift lever is typically outside of the slicer's footprint which creates problems for packaging the slicer and sometimes gets in the way of the user.
It would be desirable to provide a lift assist system that reduces the total energy and effort required to lift a slicer. It would also be desirable to provide such a system without increasing the slicer's footprint.